Upon speaking with my girlfriend this afternoon, it has been brought
to my attention that in tenth grade she had taken a PLAN test. Apparently
your scoring-robot told her that she ranked 98th nationally, was in
the tenth region and that her lucky numbers were 62, 34, 58, 12, 23
and 38. With this data we could then evaluate her future potential on
the "World-of-Work Map" and resolve that she should do something
involving people, ideas and things. Albeit, more so with people and
ideas than with things. The only arena she should stay away from, as
a matter of course, is the realm of "data." Yes, according
to the evaluation of your predictive robots, she would be ill suited
at creating, organizing and handling data. Clearly the field of standardized
testing is not for her. Now, here is what I don't get. How come "standardized
testing agent" is not a valid career path on the tilt-o-whirl of
work map? Is no one suited to pursue a career in the field of predictive
data collection? I mean, I always figured your tests were graded by
ten foot tall, fire-breathing robots, but I never expected your entire
organization to be run by automatons. Then again, maybe I'm reading
into this wrong. Maybe there is just a mistake in your logic somewhere.
After all, working with data is a long way off from working with ideas.
This is clearly problematic because data in and of itself is useless.
The mere collection and organization of data is a pointless endeavor.
The only time data comes to life or in other words, is of any use to
anyone other than people who get paid to collect it, is when it is processed
intelligently. In other words, to drive the point home like a stake
to the head, data is only of any use when it is analyzed critically
by someone with an idea of what to do with it. Obviously, according
to the tilt-o-whirl of the working world, data collectors are one-hundred
and eighty degrees from thinking. They do not work with ideas at all.
Clearly, they are stupid people. If one were to read the map, they would
find that the only ideas they actually ever get are filtered through
people or things. People or things such as, say, books or religious
leaders. So, if your organization's agenda for processing the data you
collect is always somehow received third hand, it is not surprising
that in order to process all of your innate data, you should employ
scoring robots. Not being strong in the idea department, you obviously
do not know better, and the robots, well, they don't know better either.
Robots do not know better because robots, contrary to popular belief,
cannot think. I think Roger Penrose made a pretty cogent__ argument
for this in the emperor's new mind. Anyway, this leaves us with the
problem that there is a group of people working one-hundred and eighty
degrees away from cognizant reasoning and they're collecting data which
they then feed to robots who can only truly perform the task that they
have been set to accomplish. This wouldn't be all that bad if not for
the fact that these mindless robots, being employed by you mindless
buffoons, are telling a good swath of America what to do with the rest
of their life based on a seemingly arbitrary number in a mysterious
ranking system. To make matters worse, your mental deficiency must result
in a sub-par imagination. This creative handicap then limits your conception
of the possible career choices of a test-taker to little better than
the wish list of a stodgy grandmother; doctor, lawyer or corporate accountant.
Your inflexibility in allowing for one to blaze their own path or choose
multi-discplinary paths is clearly poorly thought through and troubling.
What is even more troubling is that fact that my girlfriend was mandated
to take this exam. This examination clearly, by its inherent nature,
right away limits her potential for engagement in the world by assuming
that she wants a career as opposed to merely holding a job. Choosing
to delve into a career path is a life choice, not a mandate from the
Board of Education, Mom, God or a ten foot tall fire-breathing robot.
It should not be assumed that selecting a career is mandatory or at
the very least, itinerant traveling should be a career choice available
to high school students. Then again, maybe I'm just bitter that I personally
have never had taken a PLAN test. Maybe in the back of my mind I'm wondering
if my Bachelor in Fine Arts was the right choice for me. Maybe rather
than being a New Media Artist I should have been a Soil Scientist. I
suppose I will be forever haunted by all that may have been if I were
given different numbers at an earlier age. Once again numerology forsakes
me. Oh cruel fate!